Space Opera Fans discussion

The December 2022 Reader Pick is The Marann by Christie Meierz. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description (Amazon version):
A brilliant young teacher. A seemingly cold alien ruler. A love Earth Central Command tried to prevent.

High school teacher Marianne Woolsey was teaching Spanish in rural Iowa when Central Command decided her linguistic talents would be better exercised teaching human languages to the daughter of an alien ruler on a planet 24 light-years from Earth. Deeply wounded by a childhood trauma, she has always avoided men, but now she's thrown into close contact with a man who is as gentle as he is dangerous.

Driven by duty, deadly to anyone who dares cross him, the Sural has ruled his province and led his planet far longer than he can admit to his daughter's human tutor, and he hides much more from the space-faring races of the Trade Alliance than he is willing to admit. What he doesn't want Central Command to know, he has to conceal from Marianne, but she is keeping her own secrets from him - and as an empath, he knows it.

I have read this book several times. I’ll be binge rereading the entire series in preparation for the new book due out in January 2023.

Both this book and the prequel Into Tolari Space are free as ebooks for another few days. Into Tolari Space while set chronologically several years before The Marann makes more sense if you have already read The Marann.

I’ve started rereading this entire series. Into Tolari Space is two related short stories that take place several years before The Marann starts. I suggest reading it after you read The Marann, assuming you enjoy The Marann of course. The short stories give some backstory but there are some things in them that are spoilers for The Marann. I read the short stories earlier today. I’m on chapter 5 of The Marann now.

Other than the psychic powers the Tolari aren’t very alien physically. The culture is definitely alien. It was interesting seeing the human and Tolari having such strong reactions to the other’s views on suicide. But then I love stories with culture clashes.

Into Tolari Space is no longer showing as a free ebook. Strange, I distinctly recall the author saying both ebooks would be free for the month of November.

I finished rereading The Marann. Some things about the Tolari are completely implausible but it was easy to suspend my disbelief. Some of the things about Earth were much too believable.

Diving into Daughters of Suralia next.

The Marann and Daughters of Suralia have the same main POV character. The Fall switches to a different main POV character. Here’s a good quote from The Fall, from a minor character that I thought didn’t show up until Farryn's War:
“Does anyone trust Earth’s government?” Bertie twitched a lop-sided smile. “Let me poll a few… billion… people and see if I can find someone.”

Both The Fall and Farryn’s War switch POV characters a bit too often for my tastes, and I don’t much like the scenes where a bad guy is the POV. Please note that it hasn’t slowed my reading down much; I blame being back at my full time job for me likely needing two days to read Farryn’s War instead of just one.

Finished Farryn’s War, and it’s not quite December yet. Six more weeks before the next book comes out.

Went to look up the prequel Into Tolari Space and it is currently 99 cents in Kindle edition, oddly enough Amazon said I obtained a copy in 2012. Been sitting on my Kindle all this time and have yet to read it. Think I'll read it first as it is short.

The author just made Farryn's War ebook free on Amazon. I imagine that’s for a limited time.

BookFunnel lists both The Marann and Farryn’s War as free for December.

I just started The Marann. Chapter 1...

Nearly a quarter of the way reading late last night. It has kept my interest until I could no longer stay awake. Concurrently reading a couple of books for other groups, so it would have been easy to close and pick up something else.

I am up to Chapter 6. Interesting Tolari social structure. So far, the Tolari seem to look like humans except for funny looking feet.

The human social structure is also rather strange for what is supposed to be 500 or so years in the future. In this book, it seems that men are running the show and the women are their support system. I would hope that by then at least some women would be ambassadors or admirals with their husbands chopping vegetables in the kitchen and giving pep talks.

Good point. I wonder if the author honestly thought that the social pendulum would swing back, or just used typical stereotypes.

About the Tolari being human except their feet (and psi powers): keep reading. There’s a reason for that.

After further thought, the later books in the series give details of why the two females on the ship in orbit that Marianne was allowed to talk to acted the way they did. For the admiral’s wife, the backstory is explained in the third book and IMO would be plenty of reason for her to just act as a wife and mother with no other career. The explanation of the ambassador’s wife is even more of a spoiler so I’m not saying more about it.

Gah it’s hard to avoid spoilers…..

I just finished. I agree that the comments I want to make right now would be spoilers. For example, my suspicions on the nature of the white cubes.

Finished. Loved the world building. Had to suspend belief with the white cubes. Thought of the brown acid at Woodstock (no and no) The romance was ok moving the story on, but didn't do a lot for me other than add to the society construction. The ending seemed kind of stark.

Not sure if I will continue the series, but just make note of it for future reference, but so many books so little time as I'm not getting any younger having circled the sun nearly 72 times.

Alan wrote: "Finished. Loved the world building. Had to suspend belief with the white cubes. Thought of the brown acid at Woodstock (no and no) The romance was ok moving the story on... but so many books so little time as I'm not getting any younger having circled the sun nearly 72 times."

Same here, Re: the 72, but finding series interesting enough to continue after I'm out from under the library Overdrive and Hoopla tbr hills. Another example of "so many books so little time."